CHICAGO – In response to the recent announcement from the comptroller’s office that Illinois will skip its November pension payments, Senator John G. Mulroe (D-Chicago) has issued the following statement:

“We have made great progress in the last four years in making our pension payments that have been escalating during that time. It's unfortunate that the governor is unwilling to talk about the budget and our obligations to make pension payments. They are directly connected. The failure to make mandated pension payments will end up hurting everyone in the state; this decision will lead to a downgrade in bond ratings, further damaging our financial outlook. It's time for the governor to put aside his non-budget related agenda and deal with what's of immediate concern.”

Runway 10R-28L was commissioned today at O’Hare following the implementation of the O’Hare Modernization Plan (OMP). The new runway at the south of the airfield, which aligns roughly with Irving Park Road, brings the number of east-west parallel runways to five.

While it is not disputed that O’Hare is a valuable economic engine of the state as well as the country—employing tens of thousands of Illinois residents—the resulting increase of noise due to the OMP and the new runway have and continue to negatively impact the residents of the 10th district.

While I acknowledge that the City of Chicago and the Federal Aviation Administration have listened to the concerns of O’Hare’s neighbors by hosting meetings between residents and aviation officials from the city and federal levels, their response has been insufficient to address the noise issue which has not disappeared.

I urge the CDA and FAA to re-evaluate this decade old plan to find how O'Hare can continue to thrive while bringing relief to its neighbors.

This decade old plan anticipated an increase to capacity and an increase in efficiency at the airport. Ultimately, the goal was to have six east-west runways and to eliminate the existing diagonal runways. To date, capacity has not increased and there has been little, if any, increase in efficiency at the airport. Recently, some have questioned the necessity of the sixth runway due to lack of increased capacity.

Common sense dictates that the decade old plan be re-evaluated because the assumptions that were part of the original plan turned out to be inaccurate. The existing diagonal runways should remain an option for solving the noise problem while the plan is being re-evaluated.

I am committed to working with officials at any level of government to ensure that the people’s voices aren’t drowned out by the jet noise. Residents want and deserve relief from the noise, and that’s what we should be working towards.

The recent passage of SB54 into Public Act 99-0407 is monumental in the detection of cancer in women. But don't just take my word for it. Here is a recent letter from Dr. Deepa Cyriac, M.D. to Springfield's State Journal-Register. It is truly a marvelous thing when legislation and the communities it affects can come together like this.

The governor recently vetoed Senate Bill 661, which is a cost-saving measure intended to save lives by requiring doctors to offer adults born between 1945 and 1965 a one-time screening test for Hepatitis C. As the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Health, I am perplexed by the reasons given for governor's veto and his unwillingness to reach a compromise or an alternative, other than an outright veto.

One of the primary concerns the governor had was that this measure would change a doctor’s standard of care with respect to these patients, but I disagree. The Medical Society, the Centers for Disease Control and every doctor who testified before the Senate Public Health Committee all agreed that doctors should be offering the one-time screening test; however, some doctors are not following their own guidelines. This bill would codify the medical community’s current guidelines and recommendations.

I also disagree with the governor’s assertion that this bill will cost the state more money. The offer to screen a patient does not cost a dime. Additionally, if a patient accepted a doctor’s offer to be screened, the current cost of screening is covered by all forms of insurance, including Medicaid. The cost of the screening test is around $10-$20 per test.

Prevention and awareness are the reason for this bill. Hepatitis C is a silent killer and offering a screening test is the first step to eradicating it. Even people diagnosed with hep C who can’t get treated with current medication can slow down the effects of the virus by changing their lifestyle. They can also take steps to ensure they don’t spread the virus.

While the cost of treating the hep C virus is not the subject of this bill, it is an important discussion that needs to take place. If treated with current medication that can eradicate the virus, the cost is about 10 percent compared to not treating the virus. Illinois’ strict criteria for treating patients on Medicaid means those Medicaid patients within Illinois that are diagnosed with hep C have virtually no access to a cure that is available to the rest of the population covered by private insurers. This is a moral dilemma and this is a policy decision that is in need of a checkup.